Summary of work: Normal personality traits have been shown to predispose individuals to certain psychiatric diseases, especially personality disorders, in American samples. In a cross-cultural replication of this finding, measures of personality, depression, and personality disorders are being collected in a large clinical sample in the People's Republic of China. Self-report, spouse rating, and psychiatric instruments have been translated from English to Chinese and adapted for use in the Chinese cultural context. A modified version of a Chinese translation of the NEO-PI-R was administered to 2,000 psychiatric in- and outpatients at 13 sites throughout the PRC. Internal consistency was low for some facet scales of the NEO-PI-R, but retest reliability was adequate, and the hypothesized factor structure was clearly recovered. Correlations with age, California Psychological Inventory scales, and spouse ratings supported the validity of NEO-PI-R scales and diagnostic subgroups showed meaningful personality profiles. The Five-Factor Model appears to be useful for the assessment of personality among Chinese psychiatric patients. Efforts to relate basic research on personality to applications in clinical psychology and studies of the relation of personality to physical health will continue.